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Artful Oven Mitts

For almost two months, I have been trying to get a new patch of oven mitts made. I hate to admit how much time it takes to quilt each individual mitt–way too much time. But there is something special about these mitts, so I keep making them. They are great gifts that are fun to look at and to use.

Here is how I make my mitts. First, I piece together a very large–about 4 feet by 8 feet–“quilt” of vintage upholstery fabric. Yes, I have a collection of vintage upholstery fabric. There are a lot upholstery scraps out there waiting to be put to good use, and I am a channel for that. You can use any fabric you like.

I back my mitts with denim. You can use old denim from jeans if you are making individual mitts. I use yardage. I have been lucky in finding denim yardage at the thrift store several times, and my mother-in-law once gave me a bolt of denim. After all these years of making mitts, I have almost finished that bolt.

In between the denim and the upholstery fabric is a layer of Insul-Bright. There are other products out there like Insul-Bright that work just as well, but I have a bolt of this, so I use it. The main thing with this batting layer is that it must protect your hand from burning–so look for products that do that. In the past I have used two layers of Insul-Bright, but nowdays I use only one.

If you were going to make a pair of mitts on your domestic machine you would make a small quilt sandwich like this which is about 10 1/2” by 15”. You would quilt it just like any other quilting project.

Once you have made two of these, you would take your pattern and put it RIGHT SIDE UP on your fabric, then mark around it with a Sharpie. You would do this again but with the pattern WRONG SIDE UP. Cut these out, stitch, bind, and you’ve got a mitt!

Because I make these in batches, I use my long arm quilting machine aka Priscilla.

Once I have quilted this large blanket of upholstery fabric, I use a Sharpie to draw outlines of the mitt all over the fabric. As I do this, I must flip the pattern so that half of what I get is the outside of a mitt and the other half is the inside of a mitt. Once, I cut only outsides! Which meant I had no mitts at all.

To keep track of how many outside mitts versus inside mitts I have, I cut as I go–this gives me a visual tally of outsides to insides.

One four foot by eight foot upholstery quilt yields about 18- 20 mitts. I do try and position the pattern so that I get interesting fabric combinations on my mitts which results in a little bit of waste, but I am okay with that.

Several years ago, I had Chris Arend do a photo shot of my mitts. I love what he did.

This is my 100th post on Tales of a Stitcher. Can you believe it? In celebration of this, I am giving away my personal oven mitt pattern complete with instructions to the first 100 individuals who post here and then email me their address.

These mitts are the perfect way to practice quilting AND make great gifts for your loved ones.

Thank you all for your interest in my Artful Oven Mitt pattern. I am no longer giving this pattern away for free, but if you are interested in having one, I do sell them here in the USA for $10.00 which includes shipping. You can pay me via Paypal at mariashell4@gmail.com just mention in the notes that you are puchasing an Artful Oven Mitten pattern. Thank you folks!

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135 thoughts on “Artful Oven Mitts”

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These are about the coolest mitts I’ve seen yet – found this link on stitchinggrandma, and she sent me over here. Love ’em!! theremissionary@gmail.com (disregard those other two comments, got the email wrong, cannot BELIEVE I did that!!!)

I love this pattern and fabric layout! I am hosting the annual Tea and Table Settings event for a fund raiser for our local museum and this year’s theme is Hats, Heels and Handbags. Of course gloves will be a part of that. We have volunteers make things to sell in the boutique at the Tea and would love to use your pattern for the Gloves Dept – Kitchen Gloves. I am hopeful to receive your pattern and permission to sell them at the fund raiser.

As soon as I free up my longarm i a am going to make some of these. It looks too fun! I don’t have any upholstery fabric so will have to make due with regular cotton quilting fabric. I suspect durability is the only issue I would have.

If you use regular cotton fabrics I would make sure to have a thicker lining fabric–denim is great. And I would consider using two layers of insulated batting or one layer of insulated and one layer of regular cotton. Thank you for stopping by!

Sharon-I am not technologically advanced enough to have a pattern for you to download. This is very much an old school give away. You post on my blog. I email you and ask for your address, then I mail you a pattern via the US postal service. We will get you a pattern, it will just a take a few days.

Thank you! I would love to have the pattern. – I too (like Sandy) am getting a head start on next Christmas. My goal is to cross at least 2 people off my list each month! That will be easy with these pot holders. Thanks for sharing the idea and pattern.

I also found my way here from Martha Hall’s blog and would love to have the pattern for your oven mitts. I am currently one-handed due to an unfortunate incident the other night involving a large opened can of tomato sauce and my index finger, so I might need to re-name the mitt, cutting mitt. It was fortuitous that our son’s godfather is a plastic surgeon. Five stitches sewn the kitchen table.

You sent me a pattern once and I loaned it out and haven’t seen it since. Would you be kind enough to mail me another one??? I would be willing to pay you something for it if necessary. I love the pattern! Its the best. Thank you!

Oh YES! I got it and thank you! This one is definitely for my MIT’s only! 🙂 I cut it out if template plastic so it will last and I never loan my plastic templates. Again, my thanks for a great pattern.

If you are really giving out your pattern STILL, I would love to have one! What a GREAT idea! My best girlfriend (also a quilter) is getting married soon and I would love to give her a set. It would give me a chance to use up some of the upholstry remnants I buy.

I stumbled upon your website and blog when I was looking at classes at the Houston Quilt Festival. I am so taking this class—it looks like a fun time and I can learn a lot. Can’t wait for registration to open!

Your mitts are fabulous! I have noticed them in other posts that you have made.I would love a pattern. Cant wait to make them. Love all your work. Congratulations on your SAQA quilt being sold the first day.

I have upholstery scraps to use up. Before buying the pattern, I am wondering if one has to use all cotton fabric or if synthetic and other blends work. I’m considered about melting or getting on fire.

Marilyn- I have used all kinds of things and I have never had problem. If you put them into a fire they will burn, and I wouldn’t use an upholstery fabric that has a plastic coating on one side, but synthetics and poly blends have worked just fine. I hope that answers your questions.